Michael Bloomberg’s plan to use an environmental law clinic at NYU to place environmentalist lawyers in friendly state attorneys general offices has hit a roadblock in Virginia. On Wednesday, the Competitive Enterprise Institute sued Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring (D) for records about his office’s claim that they could legally bring on board a special assistant attorney general paid for by an activist donor.

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“Given the apparent prohibitions in the Virginia code against this arrangement, not to mention due process concerns, it is inconceivable the Commonwealth’s top legal office claimed authority to do this without considering whether it’s legal,” said CEI senior fellow Chris Horner, who submitted the requests for CEI. “We seek confirmation if this is the case and to find out how the OAG could claim to have ‘no records’ responsive to these requests.”

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CEI was told that the office of the attorney general had no records showing that it had produced any analysis, opinion, or conclusion supporting its legal assertions.

“Given the apparent prohibitions in the Virginia code against this arrangement, not to mention due process concerns, it is inconceivable the Commonwealth’s top legal office claimed authority to do this without considering whether it’s legal,” said Horner. “We seek confirmation if this is the case and to find out how the OAG could claim to have ‘no records’ responsive to these requests.”